Reading Practice 1

Bovids

The family of mammals called bovids belongs to the Artiodactyl(B ộ guốc chẵn) class, which
also includes giraffes. Bovids are a highly diverse group consisting of 137 species, some of
which are man’s most important domestic animals(V ật nu ôi).

Bovids are well represented in most parts of Eurasia and Southeast Asian islands, but they
are by far the most numerous and diverse in the latter. Some species of bovid are solitary,
but others live in large groups with complex social structures. Although bovids have adapted
to a wide range of habitats, from arctic tundra to deep tropical forest, the majority of species
favour open grassland, scrub or desert. This diversity of habitat is also matched by great
diversity in size and form: at one extreme is the royal antelope of West Africa, which stands a
mere 25 cm at the shoulder; at the other, the massively built bison of North America and
Europe, growing to a shoulder height of 2.2m.

Despite differences in size and appearance, bovids are united by the possession of certain
common features. All species are ruminants, which means that they retain undigested food in
their stomachs, and regurgitate it as necessary. Bovids are almost exclusively herbivorous.

D đ ặc đi ểm s ừng,m óng

Typically their teeth are highly modified for browsing and grazing: grass or foliage is cropped
with the upper lip and lower incisors** (the upper incisors are usually absent), and then
ground down by the cheek teeth. As well as having cloven, or split, hooves, the males of ail
bovid species and the females of most carry horns. Bovid horns have bony cores covered in
a sheath of horny material that is constantly renewed from within; they are unbranched and
never shed. They vary in shape and size: the relatively simple horns of a large Indian buffalo
may measure around 4 m from tip to tip along the outer curve, while the various gazelles
have horns with a variety of elegant curves.

Five groups, or sub-families, may be distinguished: Bovinae, Antelope, Caprinae,

Cephalophinae and Antilocapridae. The sub-family Bovinae comprises most of the larger
bovids, including the African bongo, and nilgae, eland, bison and cattle. Unlike most other
bovids they are all non-territorial. The ancestors of the various species of domestic cattle

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banteng, gaur, yak and water buffalo are generally rare and endangered in the wild, while the
auroch (the ancestor of the domestic cattle of Europe) is extinct.

The term ‘antelope’ is not a very precise zoological name – it is used to loosely describe a
number of bovids that have followed different lines of development. Antelopes are typically
long-legged, fast-running species, often with long horns that may be laid along the back
when the animal is in full flight. There are two main sub-groups of antelope: Hippotraginae,
which includes the oryx and the addax, and Antilopinae, which generally contains slighter
and more graceful animals such as gazelle and the springbok. Antelopes are mainly
grassland species, but many have adapted to flooded grasslands: pukus, waterbucks and
lechwes are all good at swimming, usually feeding in deep water, while the sitatunga has
long, splayed hooves that enable it to walk freely on swampy ground.

The sub-family Caprinae includes the sheep and the goat, together with various relatives
such as the goral and the tahr. Most are woolly or have long hair. Several species, such as
wild goats, chamois and ibex, are agile cliff – and mountain-dwellers. Tolerance of extreme
conditions is most marked in this group: Barbary and bighorn sheep have adapted to arid
deserts, while Rocky Mountain sheep survive high up in mountains and musk oxen in arctic
tundra.

The duiker of Africa belongs to the Cephalophinae sub-family. It is generally small and
solitary, often living in thick forest. Although mainly feeding on grass and leaves, some
duikers – unlike most other bovids – are believed to eat insects and feed on dead animal
carcasses, and even to kill small animals.

The pronghorn is the sole survivor of a New World sub-family of herbivorous ruminants, the
Antilocapridae in North America. It is similar in appearance and habits to the Old World
antelope. Although greatly reduced in numbers since the arrival of Europeans, and the
subsequent enclosure of grasslands, the pronghorn is still found in considerable numbers
throughout North America, from Washington State to Mexico. When alarmed by the approach
of wolves or other predators, hairs on the pronghorn’s rump stand erect, so showing and
emphasizing the white patch there. At this signal, the whole herd gallops off at speed of over
60 km per hour.

 incisors: front teeth

Questions 1-3

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write your answers in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

1. In which region is the biggest range of bovids to be found?

A. Africa
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 B. Eurasia
C. North America
D. South-east Asia

2. Most bovids have a preference for living in

A. isolation
B. small groups
C. tropical forest
D. wide open spaces

3. Which of the following features do all bovids have in common?

A. Their horns are shot

B. They have upper incisors
C. They store food in the body
D. Their hooves are undivided

Questions 4-8

Look at the following characteristics (Questions 4-8) and the list of sub-families below.

Match each characteristic with the correct sub-family, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter, A, B, C or D, in boxes 4-8 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once

4............. DCaprinae........ can endure very harsh environments

5............CBovinae......... includes the ox and the cow

A. 6.......... Cephalophinae

........... may supplement its diet with meat

7........... Antelope.......... can usually move at speed

8......... Antelope............ does not defend a particular area of land

List of sub-families

B. Antelope
C. Bovinae
D. Caprinae
E. Cephalophinae

Questions 9-13

Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

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Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

9. What is the smallest species of Bovid called?............ The duiker.........

10. Which species of Bovinae hos now died out?....... auroch..............

11. What facilitates the movement of the sitatunga over wetland?.............. Long,splayed
hooves.......

12. What sort of terrain do barbary sheep live in?....... Arid Desert..............

13. What is the only living member of the Antilocapridae sub-family?............ the
pronghorn.........

Reading Practice 2

Photovoltaics on the rooftop

A natural choice for powering the family home
A

In the past, urban homeowners have not always had much choice in the way electricity is
supplied to their homes. Now, however, there is a choice, and a rapidly increasing number
of households worldwide are choosing the solar energy option. Solar energy, the
conversion of sunlight into energy, is made possible through the use of ‘photovoltaics’,
which are simple appliances that fit onto the roof of a house.

The photovoltaics-powered home remains connected to the power lines, but no storage is
required on-site, only a box of electronics (the inverter) to the interface between the
photovoltaics and the grid network. Figure 1 illustrates the system. During the day, when
the home may not be using much electricity, excess power from the solar array is fed back
to the grid, to factories and offices that need daytime power. At night, power flows the
opposite way. The grid network effectively provides storage. If the demand for electricity is
well matched to when the sun shines, solar energy is especially valuable. This occurs in
places like California in the US and Japan, where air-conditioning loads for offices and
factories are large but heating loads for homes are small.

The first systematic exploration of the use of photovoltaics on homes began in the US
during the 1970s. A well-conceived program started with the sitting of a number of
residential experiment stations at selected locations around the country, representing
different climatic zones. These stations contained a number of ‘dummy’ houses(Nh à t est),
each with different solar-energy system design. Homes within the communities close to
these stations were monitored to see how well their energy use matched the energy
generated by the stations’ dummy roofs. A change in US government priorities in the early
1980s halted this program.

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D

With the US effort dropping away, the Japanese Sunshine Project came to the fore. A large
residential test station was installed on Rokko Island beginning in 1986. This installation
consists of 18 ‘dummy’ homes. Each equipped with its own 2-5 kilowatt photovoltaic
system (about 20 – 50 square meters for each system). Some of these simulated homes
have their own electrical appliances inside, such as TV sets, refrigerators and air
conditioning units, which switch on and off under computer control providing a lavish
lifestyle for the non-existent occupants. For the other systems, electronics simulate these
household loads. This test station has allowed being explored in a systematic way, under
well-controlled test conditions. With no insurmountable problems identified, the Japanese
have used the experience gained from this station to begin their own massive residential
photovoltaics campaign.
E

Meanwhile, Germany began a very important ‘1,000 roof program’ in 1990, aimed at
installing photovoltaics on the roofs of 1,000 private homes. Large federal and regional
government subsidies were involved, accounting in most cases for 70% of the total system
costs. The program proved immensely popular, forcing its extension to over 2,000 homes
scattered across Germany. The success of this program stimulated other European
countries to launch a similar program.
F

Japan’s ‘one million roof program’ was prompted by the experience gained in the Rokko
Island test site and the success of the German 1,000 roof program. The initially quoted
aims of the Japanese New Energy Development Organization were to have 70,000 homes
equipped with the photovoltaics by the year 2000, on the way to 1 million by 2010. The
program made a modest start in 1994 when 539 systems were installed with a government
subsidy of 50 percent. Under this program, entire new suburban developments are using
photovoltaics.
G

This is good news, not only for the photovoltaic industry but for everyone concerned with
the environment. The use of fossil fuels to generate electricity is not only costly in financial
terms, but also in terms of environmental damage. Gases produced by the burning of fossil
fuels in the production of electricity are a major contributor to the greenhouse effect. To
deal with this problem, many governments are now proposing stringent targets on the
amount of greenhouse gas emissions permitted. These targets mean that all sources of
greenhouse gas emissions including residential electricity use will receive closer attention
in the future.

It is likely that in the future, governments will develop building codes that attempt to
constrain the energy demands of new housing. For example, the use of photovoltaics or
the equivalent may be stipulated to lessen demands on the grid network and hence reduce
fossil fuel emissions. Approvals for building renovations may also be conditional upon
taking such energy-saving measures. If this were to happen, everyone would benefit.
Although there is an initial cost in attaching the system to the rooftop, the householder’s
outlay is soon compensated with the savings on energy bills. In addition, everyone living on
the planet stands to gain from the more benign environmental impact.

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Questions 1-6

The Reading Passage has nine paragraphs A-H

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-H, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

1..........................examples of countries where electricity use is greater during the day than
at night B

2..........................a detailed description of an experiment that led to photovoltaics being

promoted throughout the country D

3..........................the negative effects of using conventional means of generating electricity G

4..........................an explanation of the photovoltaic system. B

5..........................the long-term benefits of using photovoltaics H

6.........................a large campaign inspired by a country's successful example E

Questions 7-13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?

In boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

7..........................Photovoltaics are used to store electricity. F

8..........................Since the 1970s, the US government has provided continuous support for
the use of photovoltaics on homes. F

9..........................The solar-powered house on Rokko Island is uninhabited.

10.......................... In 1994, the Japanese government was providing half the money required
for installing photovoltaics on homes. T

11.......................... Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Australia all have strict goals with
regard to greenhouse gas emissions. NG

12.......................... Residential electricity use is the major source of greenhouse gas NG

emission.
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13.......................... Energy-saving measures must now be included in the design of all new
homes and improvements to buildings. F

Reading Practice 3

How should reading be taught?

By Keith Rayncr a Barbara Roorman
A
Learning to speak is automatic for almost all children, but learning to read requires
elaborate instruction and conscious effort. Well aware of the difficulties, educators have
given a great deal of thought to how they can best help children learn to read. No single
method has triumphed. Indeed, heated arguments about the most appropriate form of
reading instruction continue to polarize the teaching community.

B
Three general approaches have been tried. In one, called whole-word instruction, children
learn by rote how to recognise at a glance a vocabulary of 50 to 100 words. Then they
gradually acquire other words, often through seeing them used over and over again in the
context of a story.

Speakers of most languages learn the relationship between letters and the sounds
associated with them (phonemes). That is, children are taught how to use their knowledge
of the alphabet to sound out words. This procedure constitutes a second approach to
teaching reading – phonics.

Many schools have adopted a different approach: the whole-language method. The
strategy here relies on the child’s experience with the language. For example, students are
offered engaging books and are encouraged to guess the words that they do not know by
considering the context of the sentence or by looking for clues in the storyline and
illustrations, rather than trying to sound them out.

Many teachers adopted the whole-language approach because of its intuitive appeal.
Making reading fun promises to keep children motivated, and learning to read depends
more on what the student does than on what the teacher does. The presumed benefits of
whole-language instruction – and the contrast to the perceived dullness of phonics – led to
its growing acceptance across American during the 1990s and a movement away from
phonics.

C
However, many linguists and psychologists objected strongly to the abandonment of
phonics in American schools. Why was this so? In short, because research had clearly
demonstrated that understanding how letters related to the component sounds in words is
critically important in reading. This conclusion rests, in part, on knowledge of how
experienced readers make sense of words on a page. Advocates of whole-language
instruction have argued forcefully that people often derive meanings directly from print
without ever determining the sound of the word. Some psychologists today accept this
view, but most believe that reading is typically a process of rapidly sounding out words

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mentally. Compelling evidence for this comes from experiments which show that subjects
often confuse homophones (words that sound the same, such as ‘rose’ and ‘rowse’).
This supports the idea that readers convert strings of letters to sounds.

D
In order to evaluate different approaches to teaching reading, a number of experiments
have been carried out, firstly with college students, then with school pupils. Investigators
trained English-speaking college students to read using unfamiliar symbols such as Arabic
letters (the phonics approach), while another group learned entire words associated with
certain strings of Arabic letters (whole-word). Then both groups were required to read a
new set of words constructed from the original characters. In general, readers who were
taught the rules of phonics could read many more new words than those trained with a
whole-word procedure.

Classroom studies comparing phonics with either whole-word or whole-language

instruction are also quite illuminating. One particularly persuasive study compared two
programmes used in 20 first-grade classrooms. Half the students were offered traditional
reading instruction, which included the use of phonics drills and applications. The other half
were taught using an individualised method that drew from their experiences with
languages; these children produce their own booklets of stories and developed sets of
words to be recognised (common components of the whole-language approach). This
study found that the first group scored higher at year’s end on tests of reading and
comprehension.

E
If researchers are so convinced about the need for phonics instruction, why does the
debate continue? Because the controversy is enmeshed in the philosophical differences
between traditional and progressive (or new) approaches, differences that have divided
educators for years. The progressive challenge the results of laboratory tests and
classroom studies on the basis of a broad philosophical skepticism about the values of
such research. They champion student-centred learning and teacher empowerment.
Sadly, they fail to realise that these very admirable educational values are equally
consistent with the teaching of phonics.

F
If schools of education insisted that would-be reading teachers learned something about
the vast research in linguistics and psychology that bears on reading, their graduates
would be more eager to use phonics and would be prepared to do so effectively. They
could allow their pupils to apply the principles of phonics while reading for pleasure. Using
whole- language activities to supplement phonics instruction certainly helps to make
reading fun and meaningful for children, so no one would want to see such tools discarded.
Indeed, recent work has indicated that the combination of literature-based instruction and
phonics is more powerful than either method used alone.

Teachers need to strike a balance. But in doing so, we urge them to remember that reading
must be grounded in a firm understanding of the connections between letters and sounds.
Educators who deny this reality are neglecting decades of research. They are also
neglecting the needs of their students.

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Questions 1-5
Reading Passage has six sections, A-F.

Choose the correct heading for sections B-F from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings
i Disagreement about the reading process

ii The roots of the debate

iii A combined approach

iv Methods of teaching reading

v A controversial approach

vi Inconclusive research

vii Research with learners

vii Allowing teachers more control

ix A debate amongst educators

Example
Section A ix

1..........................Section B IV

2..........................Section C V

3..........................Section D VII

4..........................Section E ii

5..........................Section F III

Questions 6-10
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?

In boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

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6..........................The whole-language approach relates letters to sounds. F al s e

7..........................Many educators believe the whole-language approach to be the

most
interesting way to teach children to read. True

8..........................Research supports the theory that we read without linking words

to
sounds. Fal se

9..........................Research has shown that the whole-word approach is less

effective than
the whole-language approach. NG

10.......................... Research has shown that phonics is more successful than both
the
whole-word and whole-language approaches. True

Questions 11-14
Complete the summary of sections E and F using the list of words, A-G, below.

Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet.

In the teaching community, 11..................... question the usefulness of research into

methods of teaching reading. These critics believe that 12.....................is incompatible with
student-centred learning. In the future, teachers need to be aware of 13.....................so
that they understand the importance of phonics. They should not, however, ignore the
ideas of 14.....................which make reading enjoyable for learners.

A the phonics method

B the whole-word method
C the whole-language method
D traditionalists
E progressives
F linguistics
[Link] studies
1.D
2.D
3.C
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link] duiker
[Link] Auroch
[Link],splayed hooves
[Link] deserts
[Link] pronghorn

1B
1
0
2D
3G
4B
5H
6E
7 False
8 False
9 NG
10 True
11 NG
12 NG
13 False

1 IV
2V
3 VII
4 II
5 III
6 False
7 True
8
9 NG
10
11 E
12 A
13G
14C

1
1
1
2
1
3
1
4
Solution:
1.D 8.B
2.D 9. (the) royal antelope 3.C 10. (the) auroch
4.C 11. long, splayed hooves 5.B 12. arid deserts
6.D 13. (the) pronghorn
7. A